Saturday, February 1, 2014

Wonderful act of magnanimous generosity.

In the
year 1981, six young engineers led by another engineer, Mr. N. R.
Narayana Murthy, all working in a computer firm in the city of Pune
in India, decided to leave their company to set up their own software
start up unit with an initial capital of US$ 250. One of their first
clients was a US company, Data Basics Corporation, in New York. Today
Infosys is a NYSE listed global consulting and IT services company
with more than 158,000 employees. From a capital of US$ 250, they
have grown to become a US$ 8.095 billion company with a market
capitalization of approximately US$ 33 billion. Infosys has been a
major catalyst to bring about some of the major changes that have led
to India's emergence as the global destination for software services
talent.

Senapathy
Gopalakrishnan, ( popularly known as Kris Gopalakrishnan,) happened
to be one of the six engineers who assisted Narayana Murthy to set
up Infosys. Born in the southern Indian city of Trivandrum on April
5, 1956, he became well qualified with M.Tech (Computer Science)
degree in 1979, from Indian Istitute of Technology, Madras, before
he started his career as a software engineer also with Patni
Computers, in Mumbai in 1979. In 2007, Kris took over as CEO and
Managing Director of Infosys Technologies Limited from Mr. Nandan
Nilekani after serving as Chief Operating Officer (since April 2002),
and as the President and Joint Managing Director (since August 2006).
Today he is the executive vice chairman (former co-chairman) of
Infosys.

As the
company grew over the years at an astronomical rate, company founders
slowly became extremely wealthy. There is no doubt that this wealth
was created by them by their hard work and sound business strategies
and no one would ever complain about their hard earned wealth. Yet
they have been showing their social awareness with great magnanimity
as they have continued to donate for worthy causes.

This
week, Infosys executive vice-chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan, announced
setting aside Rs 2.25 Billion to develop a Centre for Brain Research
at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore (IISc). The money
will be given to the Institute under the banner of the Pratiksha
Trust, a charitable organization he has set up with his wife Sudha.
The trust funds education, research, innovation and entrepreneurship.
This great philanthropic contribution to the cause of Pure Sciences
would also be one of the single-largest donations the 105-year-old
institute has received from an individual.

As an
alumnus of this great place of higher learning, I am naturally very
proud that my Alma Mater has received this grant to set up a facility
to carry out research in a new and divergent field. Pratiksha Trust
has committed to give the money to IISc over 10 years for the
establishment and functioning of the research centre. It'll also be
supported by the Centre for Neuroscience and other facilities at IISc
and collaborate with hospitals across the city. The centre will be an
autonomous body in the institute and is expected to have a faculty of
50-75 scientists. There also would be visiting faculty and
post-doctoral students. An international scientific advisory board
chaired by Nobel laureate Prof Torsten Wiesel will guide the centre.
Stanley Fahn (Columbia University), Sangram Sisodia ( University of
Chicago), John Morris (Washington University, St. Louis) and Giovanni
Frisoni (University of Geneva) are among the members who will help
start operations at the centre, set research goals, and guide it.

Vijayalakshmi
Ravindranath, chairperson, Centre for Neuroscience, IISc explains
what the centre would do in these words:

"The
broad goal of the centre is to understand the functioning of the
brain.We'll study how a normal brain ages and what factors lead to
neurodegenerative conditions and diseases like dementia which are
accelerated by old age. We'll work on whether it's possible to have
an early diagnosis, better quality of life for those diagnosed with
the problem and ensure treatment. The centre will also look at links
between brains and computers and leverage existing understanding of
brain functioning to create better models of computing."

It is
obvious that this centre, when set up, is likely to become a research
organization, where cutting edge research would be carried on for the
field of Neuroscience. Because of the increased life expectancy in
India the number of ageing people is rapidly growing. The centre in
IISC is therefore an important initiative, no doubt. Kudos to Kris
Gopalakrishnan, for such wonderful act of magnanimous generosity.